DESCRIPTION OF THE CLUPEA TYRANNUS. $ 



ktrinquefubtus audturh duobus petiolis diphyllis, foliolis lanceola* 

 tis, obtufis, cauda brevioribus. Cauda articuli fubtus obtecli nu- 

 merous veficulus longitudine cauda." 



From the particularity with which the onifcus phyfodes is 

 tlefcribed by Linnaeus, it is evident that he had the infect be- 

 fore him, or a defcription by an attentive obferver. It appears 

 alfo from the «* Habitat in pelago" that the O. Phyfodes, if But differing in 

 this be the infea, is found detached from his conductor. JaJyjjfjJ - 

 There are a few points in which the O. Phyfodes differs from the ocean. 

 my infed. I did not obferve the antennae, perhaps for Want 

 of fufficient attention, or of a microfcope. The petioli of the 

 tail were not, to appearance, two-leaved, and I am certain 

 that the fegments oi the tail, and the tail itfelf, were without 

 the veficuli longitudine cauda. 



There are many circum fiances, to afce'rtain which is effen- Whether the 



tial to the natural hiftory of this infefi. The fifti whofe mouth ! " fe ^ b . e c< ? n " 

 i-ii- iir • • i , it- ftantly in the 



he inhabits comes, about the lame time with the chad^ into mouth of the 



the rivers of Virginia from the ocean, and continues to travel fi&t &c * 

 upwards from the beginning of March, to the middle of May ; 

 as long as they are caught upon their paflage up the river, 

 they are found fat and full of roe. Every filh which I faw had 

 the onifcus in his mouth ; and I was aflured, not only by the 

 more ignorant fifhermen, but by a very intelligent man who 

 came down now and then to divert himfelf with flfliing, that, 

 in 40 years obfervation * he had never feen a bay ale wife with- 

 out the loufe. The chad begin to return from the frelh water 

 lean and Jhotten, about the end of May and beginning of June, 

 and continue defcending during the remaining fummer months. 

 No one attempts then to catch them, for they are unfit for the 

 table. Whether the bay alewife returns with the chad, I 

 could not learn, but it is certain that after June it is not thought 

 worth the trouble to catch them. No one could tell me poji- 

 tively whether the onifcus flill continues with them, but it was 

 the opinion of my informant, that, lilce every other parafite, 

 he deferts his prote&or in his reduced ftate, for he could not 

 recollect that he had ever feen him in the mouth of thofe acci- 

 dentally caught in the feine in July or Augufl. 



I confider, therefore, the natural hiftory of the onifcus, or be the fame 

 which I now communicate, as very imperfect ; and it were * s . th< ; om ^ us of 

 to be wifhed that fome lover of natural fcience would follow 

 up the enquiry, by endeavouring to afcertain whether hecon- 



B 2 tinue 



